


Okay

by orphan_account



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Cuteness! Lots of cuteness!, Easy relationship progression, Fluff, Lots of cuddles, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-21
Updated: 2012-08-21
Packaged: 2017-11-12 14:04:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce began to come back into himself, then. It took quite a long time, since he had been the Other Guy for so long, and by the time he was in his own body, lying on Tony’s cracked floor, everyone but Tony had gone. He looks up at Tony, standing with a blanket in his arms, and all he can voice is a groan.</p>
<p>Tony looks him up and down, then grins, “I’d tap that,” He teases lightly, and Bruce laughs hoarsely, pushes himself up on his elbows.</p>
<p>“Maybe later.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Okay

He’s not sure when the last time he spent so much time as the Hulk was, if ever. Even after the battle was over, Hulk was disinclined to leave, just in case. He spent hours, after, snarling defensively at each sound he didn’t understand, as his team, Hulk’s friends, dealt with Loki and temporary arrangements for power to the city.   
  
Hulk was watching them cleaning up the top of the Tin Man’s tower, when he felt Banner at the back of his skull begin to wake up. Hulk realized he was sleepy, and curled in on himself, thumping down hard enough to crack the floor. He heard Tin Man say something, but that was all.  
  
Bruce began to come back into himself, then. It took quite a long time, since he had been the Other Guy for so long, and by the time he was in his own body, lying on Tony’s cracked floor, everyone but Tony had gone. He looks up at Tony, standing with a blanket in his arms, and all he can voice is a groan.  
  
Tony looks him up and down, then grins, “I’d tap that,” He teases lightly, and Bruce laughs hoarsely, pushes himself up on his elbows.  
  
“Maybe later.”  
  
Tony laughs, too, and then bends down and wraps the blanket around Bruce snugly, and helps him to his feet. Bruce’s muscles are sore and stiff, but Tony slips Bruce’s arm over his shoulders and helps him stand, and then walk into Tony’s bathroom.   
  
Bruce is just as covered in dirt and grit as the rest of them art, and from what he catches of Tony’s talk, Clint and Natasha have gone back to HQ to debrief, Thor is dealing with Loki, and Steve is on the street helping with the clean up. They’re meeting for Shawarma in a couple of hours.

  
And then Bruce is being hustled into a shower as big as some of the places he’s lived in his time slumming it for penance.  He’s too tired to be annoyed by the extravagance, And the water is warm as soon as it starts up, so that’s all well and good. He leans against the tile with a sigh, then turns to look when he hears the door shut, and starts.   
  
He’s not so sure it’s all well and good that Tony has come to join him. He was mostly joking with his ‘maybe later’ quip, and besides, this isn’t much later! But Tony doesn’t make a move on him, just stands under the stream of hot water and sighs himself, as it soothes his aches.  
  
He must have a lot of them, he’s nearly all head to toe bruises and cuts, with one huge broad bruise around his middle.   
  
“I did that,” Bruce murmurs and he looks down with guilt.  
  
“Yeah, saving my life,” Tony says, his eyebrows going up, “I know you remember that.”  
  
Bruce hesitates, then one corner of his mouth turns up just a bit, “I do.”  
  
Tony smiles at him, then, and he turns and moves toward Bruce. Bruce’s eyes widen and he’s about to lift his hands to signal him to stop, but all Tony does is reach up and run his hands, palms full of shampoo, through Bruce’s hair. He scratches lightly with his fingers and Bruce hums and goes boneless.   
  
Tony’s smile softens a little when Bruce’s eyes close, “Calm down, big guy, not gonna jump you. Not now, anyway, too tired for that.”  
  
Tony’s fingers are rubbing his scalp, the nape of his neck, his shoulders, and Bruce can only lean on the wall in contentment. But a thought occurs to him, something they talked about in the lab on the helicarrier, “And… Pepper will say?”  
  
“Oh, just wait until she meets you,” Tony laughs, leans in and kisses Bruce’s nose, much to his surprise, “She’s gonna _love_ you.”  
  
“Do you bring home strays often?”  
  
“No, but i’m making an exception for you.”

  
“Tony—You don’t need to uproot your relationship for—”  
  
“Shh, i’m not uprooting anything. Pepper and I… we’re a thing, but we’re not …It’s…”  
  
“Open?”  
  
“Yeah. We don’t get to see much of each other, so we never made it official. Don’t worry about Pepper, she’ll let me have you. If you’ll have _me_ that is.”  
  
“Sound like you’re asking me to marry you.”  
  
“Not yet.”  
  
“…And if I don’t like to share?”  
  
“Pepper will understand that, too, and she wont make you.”  
  
There is a very, very long pause. In this pause Bruce finds some courage, or perhaps gets too sleepy to be shy, and returns Tony’s favors. They wash each other, slow and gentle over Tony’s bruises, slow and gentle over Bruce because Tony wants to be. They don’t kiss, or even touch each other beyond the washing, and once they’re clean Tony wraps a towel around his hips and takes it upon himself to dry Bruce personally.

  
He laughs, when Bruce’s hair comes out looking like he was electrified, after he runs the towel over it. Then he runs his fingers through it, surprising Bruce again, but Bruce can’t bring himself to care. It’s been so long since he’s had so much human contact. It’s why he hasn’t argued a thing they’ve said all day.   
  
“Okay,” he finally says, and it’s been so long Tony doesn’t know what he means. He looks up with a question on his face and Bruce shrugs, flicks his eyes down then back up, face hopeful and smile shy, “Okay.” He says again, and Tony gets it, his smile white and wide in his face.  
  
“If I kiss you will you punch me?” He asks Bruce, once he’s pulled a soft cotton shirt over his head. Bruce likes Tony’s clothes, especially these ones. They’re worn soft, even the jeans are soft in the knees, and they’re so much more comfortable than anything he’s worn in years. They smell faintly of oil, cologne and something distinctly Tony.   
  
Bruce laughs, waiting until Tony’s pulled on his own jeans, “No, Tony. I just told you okay.”  
  
And then Tony’s there, kissing him with hands on either side of his neck, and it’s not how Bruce expected him to kiss. It’s lazy, compared to Tony’s normally manic energy, warm and painstakingly gentle. Its nice, and he likes it, and he hasn’t been kissed in _so_ long… He puts his hands on Tony’s hips and moves forward to slot comfortably against him, and returns the kiss.  
  
Tony’s hands don’t roam, they just slide into his hair, and that surprises Bruce too. But maybe Tony really is exhausted. Bruce slides his thumbs under Tony’s tee-shirt and strokes his hipbones in gentle circles.   
  
When the kiss breaks, Tony leans his head on Bruce’s shoulder and yawns. “Lets take a nap, I think we deserve a nap for saving the world, don’t you?”  
  
“Shouldn’t we be out helping with clean up…?” Bruce says, and Tony gives him a long suffering sigh.  
  
“Capsicle’s on that already, and Natasha and Barton are working on the debrief. We’re meeting them in an hour and a half. We can sleep for a little while. C’mon, please?”   
  
Bruce sighs, but tells himself he can feel guilty later. He lets Tony lead him out into his bed room, and watches with a smile as Tony falls face first onto the mattress with a pleased groan.   
  
He rolls over, sees Bruce standing unsure of what to do with himself nearby. He can’t even fiddle with his glasses, since he lost them somewhere in the bowels of the helicarrier. Tony doesn’t pull down the blankets, just fiddles with his phone a second, for an alarm, he guesses, and then opens his arms. “Come here,” He tells Bruce, and Bruce is not at all sure about that.

  
It’s strange, for him, having only been with girls in the past. But he thinks about it, about laying with his head on Tony’s chest and Tony’s arms around him and _wants_. He’s never had comfort like that. He shifts awkwardly for a few more seconds, then crawls up the bed. Tony’s legs are sprawled open, and he settles between them, essentially laying on Tony’s chest.  
  
“Oh. Your bruises?”  
  
“Too tired to hurt. Please don’t move.”

  
“I don’t want to.”  
  
Tony wraps his arms around Bruce, and Bruce slips his arms around Tony and can’t resist nuzzling his head under Tony’s chin. Tony turns and nuzzles his nose into Bruce’s drying curls, sighs contentedly.   
  
The next thing Bruce knows, Tony’s phone is beeping obnoxiously.   
  
_Sir_ says a voice from somewhere in the ceiling, _I advise against the snooze button. You have a dinner date._  
  
“Yeah, yeah, J.” Tony is grumbling into his hair, but Bruce swears he can feel his smile against his scalp.   
  
Bruce starts to think about things, tries to figure out what’s happening between them… And then gives up. He’s tired, and starving, and he’s so comfortable and feels so safe. When Tony nudges him gently, he tilts his head up and kisses him. He can practically feel Tony’s eyebrows go up in surprise. Then he sigh-hums softly, pulls him closer and spends several minutes kissing Bruce exploratively.   
  
_Sir_ says the voice in the ceiling, and Tony sighs and pulls away.   
  
“Come on, big guy. We’ve got a date to make. That,” he nods at the ceiling, “is JARVIS. I made him.”  
  
“An AI?”  
  
“Yup”   
  
“Impressive.”  
  
Bruce lets Tony hold his hand all the way to the Shawarma joint, and can’t bring himself to be uncomfortable with it. They explain nothing to their team mates, only eat in a content (and slightly awkward) sort of silence. They part ways, but not before Tony tells them they all have homes at the Tower if they want them, and Steve seems like he might take him up on that offer.   
  
But not tonight, Tonight the only one coming home with Tony is Bruce. Well, and apparently Pepper, because she’s in the tower when they get back, and she flings herself at Tony and kisses him (Bruce feels a distinct flare of jealousy, isn’t it a little early for that?) and then yells at him for ten minutes for being reckless before she just cries into his shoulder and praises him for being a hero.  
  
Tony isn’t sure if he should laugh or not, so he just hugs her with one arm, and reaches out for Bruce’s hand with the other. When Pepper has calmed down, Tony introduces her to Bruce, and Pepper gets it without explanation. She backs off Tony, treats him like her closest friend, but not her lover, and she’s very welcoming toward Bruce.

  
It’s exactly how Tony told him it would be, but Bruce is still surprised. Pepper stays late, she and Tony have wine and talk plans for rebuilding the tower, Pepper is very curious about Bruce’s travels and his work, and she’s easy to talk to, Bruce finds it less and less hard to talk to her with every question he answers.

  
But they have just saved the world, and by ten o’clock, Tony is falling asleep into his wine glass, and Bruce keeps dozing off, drifting toward Tony’s shoulder. Pepper realizes, hugs and kisses Tony goodbye, and then hugs Bruce too.

  
Tony sits his wineglass on the table, and yawns expansively, rubbing his face. “T’tired to walk to th’ b’droom,” Tony slurs sleepily, and he leans over and tucks himself against Bruce. Bruce thinks he could definitely get used to this, this _welcome, open_ place that he finds himself in, with someone so welcoming to him…   
  
Bruce turns and sprawls out on the couch, this time he opens his arms for Tony. Tony settles between his legs, and seems specifically careful to rest his ear over Bruce’s heart. He sighs, reaching out to lace their fingers together on the floor, dangling off the couch. His other hand slips into Bruce’s hair, and Bruce hums in contentment. Bruce runs his fingers through Tony’s hair until Tony falls asleep, and then nuzzles his nose into the space just above Tony’s ear, and falls asleep himself.   
  
His last thought, before sleep claims him is, _It’s nice to have a home_.


End file.
